takamagahara | (no subject)

TEST DRIVE # 03

Whether you're trying to figure out how your character would fare in this setting, trying to get some samples together, or just dipping your toes in the water, you've come to the right place! The Test Drive is here to make your life easy by letting you see what the game is like without actually joining it first. So here is how it works:

1: Post a starter with your character, including whether they are a god or shinki in the subject line.
2: Act like your character is established enough in the setting to allow your thread to go places.
3: Take on any god/shinki of your choosing, as long as they're not already in the game!
4: Comment around to the other people on the meme.
5: Have lots of fun!

To get you started, here are some ideas for thread-starters! Feel free to come up with your own ideas if these don't strike your fancy, though.

Keening Karaoke
For some reason, karaoke clubs have suddenly popped up all over the Heavens. Not only that, but they are the big new hotspot for residents of the Far Shore to hang out at and everyone around you has been pressuring you to join them. Do you continue to fight back or give in to the peer pressure weighing you down?

Little Lies
Everyone believes that white lies do no harm, so the people of the Near Shore are happy to use small lies whenever they need to. Tiny ayakashi have been springing from these little lies and are now teaming up to form into a huge ayakashi, and it keeps getting bigger with every passing moment!

Marriage Madness
With spring in the air, the season of weddings is upon the Near Shore, and boy do the people of Japan seem eager to get married this year. In fact, it's so crazy trying to book anything that there are literally hundreds of prayers being sent up asking for monetary deals as well as luck with finding the right place to marry. Help some poor people out.

Necklace Nuisance
A cursed necklace has sprung up in the city and there are a lot of people dying because of it. The weird thing is that no one who has actually worn the necklace has died, just everyone around them. This cursed necklace has fallen into the hands of a depraved young man who is more than happy to use its bad luck in order to start 'taking out the trash' of the world...

Overt Ogling
As the temperature rises, so do the skirts of teenage girls. Unfortunately, there are a lot of pubescent boys who are more than happy to take a gander whenever they can. Catching some peeping toms, how is a resident of the Far Shore supposed to react? Or even warn the poor girl who's being spied on?

If you're uncertain about anything, feel free to check out the Premise, Rules, and FAQ posts. And don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have on the FAQ!
When and if you're ready to join the game, check out the Taken Characters before throwing in a Reserve and starting on your Application
Have fun!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I haven't heard of him, no.

[Some of these gods are familiar, and some aren't; Hakkai isn't sure yet what makes the difference. That, too, might be a sign about his own past. He'll need to do a little research.]

What did he do? For a popular god to be punished, it must have been something serious.

It was... well, there was something that I suppose he was rightfully accused of, but there was also something else...

[Putting his hands in his pockets he looks up, lets out a long slow breath, then looks directly at Hakkai-san.]

It's not a short story, even if I abridged things. But I don't mind telling you if you really want to know.

I'd like to hear it. If it's a long story, why don't we sit down somewhere?

[They're in a shrine, after all. Hakkai doesn't know how likely it is that another shinki, or a god, might walk by, and while he has no reason to think it would be troublesome for anyone to know he's asking about this, he'd prefer to play it safe.

It's only prudent.

He glances around, and indicates a little coffee and tea shop on the opposite corner.]

We could get something to drink.

[Yukine, on the other hand, sees the invitation at face value: an offer of a drink and a place to sit for a bit while he tells the story.]

Sounds good! 'Specially if you're buying. [He's only half-serious.

Once they are both settled with their orders before them Yukine starts into the story of the 'sorcerer' Ebisu. It being from solely his point of view with only a few of the gaps filled in with things he heard later, he'll admit that the details are thin in places. But he hits all the important things, he thinks.

The hunt for the sorcerer using masks on ayakashi. That the investigation found Ebisu guilty, but at that time for some reason Ebisu was in the underworld. That for some reason Yato pursued him there. Everything about the judgement on Ebisu that had been carried out before Yukine's very eyes. Ebisu's subsequent reincarnation.

He feels no need to expand much on Yato's involvement nor mention his 'Father'. It didn't really have anything to do with the subject of heaven's judgement anyway.

Although he's doing all the talking his melon soda float is long gone by the time he gets to the end.]

And after all that, the real sorcerer is still out there. He just threw Ebisu-sama under the bus to take the attention off himself.

[He scowls and ruthlessly crushes the straw that had been in his drink.] 'The heavens are righteous'. But they sure as hell don't get everything right every time.

[Hakkai only smiles when Yukine asks if he's buying, but when they order, he pays for the melon soda as well as his own tea and small cookie plate.

By the end of the story, the tea seems less calming. It's not really a story of the viciousness of Heaven. It's a story of how very gullible Heaven can be, and when Hakkai's own existence and that of his god rest on Heaven's sufferance, that's not calming.]

They didn't listen to the evidence?

Oh, they did, in their way. There was no doubt that Ebisu-sama was using ayakashi- they found the masks, Ebisu-sama was blighted, hell, he used ayakashi right in front of all of us.

They just don't think anyone else was involved. The evidence on that point has been carefully concealed by the real sorcerer, I bet. [Not that that hasn't stopped the other gods of fortune being cast in a bad light. (It's hard to not hear things sometimes. People in Takamagahara can be such gossips.)]

Well.

Thank you very much for telling me, Yukine.

[And so the lesson is to avoid the appearance of impropriety, because appearances will not be forgiven by Heaven, Hakkai supposes. What a pleasant place. He smiles, a little thinly, and finishes his cup of tea.]